Managing Windows users for IIS security can sometimes be a pain and, if not handled correctly, can leave your server vulnerable. In this week’s video I introduce the new ApplicationPoolIdentity account that was introduced in IIS 7.0 and improved in IIS 7.5. This “virtual account” offers a lot of power and is easy to use once you understand the basics.. Since it’s the default account for application pools, understanding it is important for any web administrator.

Black box troubleshooting is very difficult. What I mean by that, is that if you can’t see what’s happening, it’s extra difficult to troubleshoot. For us administrators, or developers needing to troubleshooting something on a live server, it’s so valuable to see what’s happening behind the scenes.

Every trade has their favorite tool, whether it be a hammer, calculator, or stethoscope. For me, one of my top tools is Process Monitor. I use it like a handy man uses duct tape. With it I can easily troubleshoot access denied errors, files not found, strange path redirection, and many other unexpected behavior situations.

Often times if you administer a web farm, or develop for a web farm, you want to know which node you’re currently on. This is useful is you want to know if your load balancers are balancing with the algorithm that you expect, or if you want to troubleshoot why a website fails just some of the time.

AppDomains are a silent mysterious part of ASP.NET and IIS. It’s important for the web administrator to be aware of this building block of ASP.NET so that we can be aware of how changes to the system can affect production sites.